The watching brief is only the first step of the sites archaeological journey, as away from it we are busy assessing, analysing, and interpreting what has been uncovered. Key to our understanding are the finds which can greatly aid our interpretations of certain features and indeed the site as a whole. For example:
- Certain artefact types are known to be used only in certain time periods so these can help with dating.
- Varying frequency of artefact types can be very telling. For example, lots of leather shoe off cuts would suggest waste from a shoe maker, whilst certain patterns of animal bones can tell us many things from whether past inhabitants were involved in a dairying economy, to what period of the year a site was occupied.
Therefore the finds need to be appraised and assessed by specialists in the artefacts type. First however, they need to be cleaned so that they can be more readily studied. Although this sounds simple it is not washing-up the plates after a Sunday dinner, and each artefact needs to be handled with care. Specifically, each artefact must be assessed to ascertain how best to clean it, without causing damage. In fact, it may not be possible to clean a find without damaging it (so these will be left dirty) and certain finds can only be cleaned by a specialist, especially if conservation is needed.
However for the most part, washing simply requires a bowl, a tooth brush, and plenty of water.
The artefact is then scrubbed with the wet tooth brush with great care.
